Breaking Point
by RageBoxAlice
Summary: *one-shot* Duo wakes up one morning feeling strange. What's happened? R/R 2+1 *shounen-ai*!


Okay, first time posting anything anywhere, so be gentle, k?  
Pairing: 2+1 shounen-ai  
Rating: PG (little language, but that's Duo for you, right?)  
Warnings: Sap, language, speck of angst and *shounen-ai*, so you've been warned. Don't come bitching at me if you don't like it and read this anyway, ok?  
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, and from the looks of my checking account, I never will.  
A/N: Reviews, constructive criticism, and chocolate are all VERY welcome. Flamers will get their own roasting in return. Special thanks to Galadriel, whose positive response to this gave me the courage to come out of lurkerspace and post something instead of letting it mold on my hard drive. Thanks, sweetie! Oh, and sorry about all the annoying "" symbols. Uploading my .txt document to ff.net, I can't seem to get the $!#@!$&* thing to indent the first line of each paragraph. So, I used something to force the line a little to the right. ^_^;; Hope you don't get confused/frustrated!   
  
Breaking Point by RageBoxAlice  
  
  
I woke up this morning feeling strange, like today was the start of an adventure story or fairy tale. It's as though this is the beginning of some first chapter, and everything before this morning is just a history, to be hinted at and select pieces revealed at critical junctures later in the plot. It's oddly liberating, in a frightening, sink-or-swim kind of way.   
I look around my room. No clues there, everything looks the same as it did yesterday/a million years ago. Everything is in its place, nothing missing, nothing here that shouldn't be. I get up and look in the mirror. Surely, surely if something was so profoundly different inside, there must have been some sort of transformation outside, right? Nothing. My face, my hair, hell even my eyes, it all looks the same. Fine. Maybe something has changed in the world, like an alien invasion or something. I look out the window. People are walking down the street. talking and laughing like they don't have a care in the world. Baffled, I sit back down on the bed.   
Perhaps something happened yesterday, something whose memory hasn't yet surfaced in my mind to be dealt with today? That was a logical thought. I search my memory, only to come up against another dead end. Yesterday had been singularly boring, absolutely nothing life-altering or even remotely interesting had happened. No, that wasn't right. Something had happened, hadn't it? Frustrated, I pull out the old Maxwell stubbornness, the obstinancy that had kept me alive through years on the street (not to mention two wars.) And I begin intensively sifting through every single thing that happened yesterday.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Waking up yesterday had been the same as it had for the last two years since I left the salvage yard and went to work for the Preventers. I hadn't really wanted to up and leave just like that, but a combination of factors had led to that decision, namely Hilde's inability to take "No!!!" for an answer and Heero's quiet but seemingly hopeful plea that I would be his partner now that he'd been conned into signing up .(Wufei can be very persuasive when he wants to be, I hear.) And when I got here we not only became partners, we also became roommates. So waking up had indeed been the same wonderful frustration it'd been for the last two years. Which was to say, I'd watched Heero all morning, while Heero obliviously sipped his coffee and read the morning paper. It would have seemed quite domestic if he hadn't been so dense about my feelings. I've done everything except throw myself on the ground at his feet and confess my undying love for him. And while I would like to maintain some dignity, I have been seriously considering that option. Hell, I even gave up a lucrative salvage business and moved to Earth to come work and live with him just because he asked me to (okay, so he didn't know about Hilde's less-than-subtle offers to "spend the night together").   
So I ogled, and he ignored, and I was almost late because I was watching Heero, not the time. It was Heero's week to drive to work, so we took his sedan. The drive was uneventful except that it was overcast and kind of dark, so I could look at Heero's reflection in the window while pretending to watch traffic, or whatever. Pathetic, I know; story of my life, though, right? Arriving at work, and the workday itself, were both mind-numbingly boring. The paperwork involved in every investigation is astonishing. You'd never know from all those cop shows, but filing paperwork actually takes up about 80% of our time, with actual investigating, evidence analysis, and other miscellaneous duties consuming the other 20%.   
So my day was spent accounting for the expenses incurred on our last assignment, including the cash used as bribes for informants. I guess I can understand how someone could fleece the agency by claiming bribes and taking the money themselves, but the grilling I get every time I file for it makes me want to tear my hair out. Lunch came and went, but had it not been for Heero's insistence that I needed to take a break I would have never noticed. He's so thoughtful like that. Lunch itself was nothing special --only Preventer cafeteria food-- but I felt much better afterwards. The rest of the day I was firmly entrenched in paperwork from the Ninth Circle of Hell a.k.a. the Accounting Department, occasional exchanges with Heero my only distraction from the monotony.  
By the end of the day, I'd managed what I'd hoped was a reasonable excuse for the bribe; enough that it wouldn't be questioned, but not so well explained as to look fake. It's a fine line, but Heero says I'm a master at walking it, which is why I get the dubious honor of doing that part of the paperwork all the time. I tell Heero he's the master B.S.-er, and he just doesn't want to deal with the harpies in Accounting who only get really bitchy when they hit on me and I turn them down. (You know, I'm starting to see a pattern emerge here.)   
The trip home was uneventful as well, only the sun was shining a little so I couldn't see Heero's reflection in my window unless I concentrated really hard. I stopped staring long enough to take a good look at how my day had gone. I was surprised that my day was pretty much that: gone. Just like the day before that, and the week before that, and the two years before that. Gone. I must have looked shocked, because next thing I knew, Heero was standing next to me by my open door, asking me what was wrong. I hadn't even noticed that we were home. I tried to play it off as a combination of office boredom and distraction, but I could tell he wasn't buying it.   
As soon as we got inside, he'd taken my jacket from me, sat me down on the couch, and told me to spill. And, being that I could deny him nothing, I did just that. I told him about feeling that my life was slipping through my hands faster than I wanted. It wasn't a waste, I knew that; but something was wrong, and I felt that time was against me. Opportunities might be passing me by without my slightest knowledge. I didn't know what to do. That was probably the closest I could come to telling him how I felt about him. I needed him to read between the lines and . I also feared it with my entire being, because once he understood, he would have to make a decision, something I might regret for a long time.  
So we sat there in silence, him thinking and me sweating, until he'd looked at me, and smiled.  
"Perhaps you're right, Duo," he'd said. "perhaps both of us have been letting opportunities slide instead of taking a chance and reaching for what we really want. And if that's true, then maybe we should change." And as he said that, he'd brushed my hand in the lightest of caresses, blushing slightly.   
I was stunned. Stunned, and happy. I might have been smiling like crazy, but I didn't care. I was happy. When Heero got up to begin dinner I let him, knowing he wouldn't be far away, and would be immediately by my side if anything happened. For the first time since I could remember, I was content. Heero had given me something I hadn't felt in a long time: hope. It was small, but it was a beginning. I could live with that.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I smile slowly. So. No wonder I feel so different, today is the beginning of a new story. It's the start of the rest of my life. The downward spiral I'd been on for so long is over. I've broken away with Heero's kind words and I have every intention of living life on the upswing. And on that note... I'm gonna be late for work if I don't get dressed in half no time!!!  
As I walk out of my bedroom while shrugging on my Preventer's jacket, Heero is there with his hand half-raised to knock. He chooses instead (much to my delight) to lightly brush his knuckles against my cheek in a quick motion.  
"Are you ready?" he asks softly. He's blushing a little.  
"Absolutely," I reply, grinning at the double meaning of our question and answer. He smiles that special just-for-me smile and we walk out the door. I smile broadly to him, myself, and the whole world. Yes, things are definitely on the upswing!  
  
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So, what did you think? Was it good? Not so good? Sorry again about the annoying "" things. If anyone can show me how to get my tabbing to show up when I upload, I would be eternally grateful. Review, please, and tell me what you think. Thanks! 


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